LIfeLock partners with Symantec On The Apprentice Again

LifeLock, one of the most well-known brands of identity theft protection, recently partnered with Symantec for a second time in a cross promotion deal on Donald Trumps The Apprentice. Potential members of LifeLock were offered for a short time a package deal that included Norton 360. Its too bad it was only for a short time as the two products can easily go hand in hand.

The correlation between antivirus software and identity theft protection packages is a pretty big one. Both are very important to obtaining a sense of security when using the Web. While an antivirus package helps to prevent you from getting spyware and other malware on your machine, a protection package will help keep your information safe if that first line of defense fails.

Also, there are several types of malware that your antivirus program may have little control over, since it does not automatically log them as suspicious. These include:

*Malicious chain letters that you get in your email, either from thieves themselves or inadvertently forwarded from your contacts
*Phishing emails that you get that pretend to be from legitimate companies asking for your personal information
*Emails from people in your contacts list whose computers are infected with viruses

Depending on the antivirus package, some people get more protection from these emails than others. If your software tells you not to open an email or download an attachment, listen. If you think it may be a legitimate email, call the sender and tell him or her what happened.

If something detrimental to your machine does get through, having a protection plan can give you some peace of mind. Even if someone who shouldn’t gets his or her hands on your information, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do about it. If you have the right package, you will be notified the first time that thief tries to use it to open an account in your name – and you can stop that action pretty much right away just by making a phone call.

Once you do that, you should also call the police and make contact with the Federal Trade Commission. Oftentimes that is enough to make a thief think twice before trying it again. He or she would rather move on to an easier target than risk getting caught or get frustrated in the effort of making a quick buck.

If you want to purchase LifeLock at a discount right now, you can simply click here. You don’t have to travel to the store or a buy an antivirus package if you don’t need one. Or, if you decide that LifeLock isn’t for you, check out one of the dozens of other packages available.

Everyone that has a computer that they use for really any reason should have both an antivirus product and an identity theft protection plan. This is especially true of persons who perform online banking or any type of Internet commerce. And since both programs are so affordable, there really is no reason not to. The FTC reported 1.2 million identity theft complaints last year. You can save lots of money by not becoming one in a million.

Personal Data Sold with Surplus Computers in Virginia

Past employees of Roanoke City Public Schools are receiving free credit monitoring services after school officials ended up selling eight computers as surplus units. The hard drives of these computers still stored the personal information of school employees from 2006 onward, and included their names, locations, and Social Security numbers, leaving their personal information at risk for identity theft.

Since this incident occurred, the hard drives have been recovered by school officials, and it is believed that none of the data was used inappropriately. However, due to the questions and concerns the school has been receiving due to this incident, they are offering a year of free credit monitoring services to their employees to ensure that nothing is done with their information due to this data breach.

TrustedID Adds Identity Threat Score to Their Identity Theft Protection Service

TrustedID introduced a new service called Identity Threat Score, included in its regular service at no extra charge a little while back. This service lets members know exactly what their risk profile is via a score of 0 to 500, and what they can do about it. This service gives you an accurate picture of where your vulnerabilities lie, and how much you are at risk in different areas.

Trusted ID is able to accomplish this through another service in their identity protection package, known as Identity Scan, in which TrustedID reviews your credit profile, and additional public and private records and compares it to patterns of information that make people more likely to be victimized by identity theft. This scanning and analysis process is similar to the systems some financial institutions use to determine risk based lending and credit worthiness.

Trusted ID then presents your identity threat score to you with a number between 0 and 500 with 0 being not at risk for identity theft. Now that is simple to understand. But they don’t just tell you how much you are at risk for identity theft they also tell you what you can do to improve your score. “ It’s one thing for us to show you that you are at risk, but the Identity Threat score goes one step further to help you reduce that risk” said Scott Mitic, CEO of TrustedID.

In addition, they will also notify you if your score moves into the medium or high range allowing you to take notice of your vulnerabilities. You also have the option to contact a specialist that will help you identify and address your risk with a step by step plan.

In addition to this new service, Trusted Id offers Data Breach Response Service and IDFreeze. IDFreeze helps stop identity theft before it happens and protects you well beyond what credit monitoring can offer with over 15 different protection points. This is much better than credit monitoring services which only alerts you after there is a problem. Data Breach Response Service helps companies protect their customers and employees if somehow their data is leaked to the public.

With 10 million American identity theft victims each year it is important to not take this issue lightly. It really has become a situation where its a matter of when, not if, you will experiance this potentially disastrous crime. Please don’t sit idly by waiting for something to happen before you take action. Learn what you can do to protect your identity and consider an identity theft protection service today.

At less than $10 a month it certainly is worth the price to have TrustedID assess your vulnerability and provide you with some concrete tips to keep those thieves at bay. Of course they do far more than that both on the protection and insurance front.

ID Theft Victims Lose More Then Money

People may not think identity theft is such a big deal because in many cases victims can get fraudulent charges forgiven and they don’t end up out any money. However, they fail to think about an even bigger cost: the amount of time that victims have to spend cleaning up their credit. This could be two hours; it could be 200 hours, it could be 1000 hours or more.

Last June blogger Tyra Damm ruminated on this topic when she thought about a recent time that she was victimized. An unidentified woman created a driver’s license with her own picture and signature but Damm’s license number, birth date, name and address. She also made an employee badge with the same information. She proceeded to use these IDs to take out loans.

Damm quickly became aware of the crimes, but it was too late to stop some of the new accounts from being processed, which made it necessary for her to spend several hours at the bank, to start, with visits to the police station, calls to the credit card companies, and a lot more research ahead of her. She estimates that she has already spent three hours and that she has only just begun all of the work she will have to do.

While time does not cost money, per se, it does cost precious minutes you could be spending playing with your kids, working, shopping for groceries, or even sleeping. Economists call this the opportunity cost, which means the sacrifice you are making to do one thing over another. Face it; no one likes spending time on the phone with credit card companies, even if it is just to make a regular inquiry. It’s even worse when you’re trying to prove you’re you and get the company to realize it has made a mistake.

Don’t want to deal with this kind of situation? There’s another type of company you can talk to instead, before the dreaded identity theft happens: a company that offers identity theft protection such as LifeLock or TrustedID. And, you can follow the advice that Damm offers at the end of her blog. Tell representatives at any financial institutions you do business with that you would like to initiate a password plan, meaning no one will be able to take action on your account, no matter how much they look or sound like you, unless they know a secret code word you choose.

If you decide to go the code word route, don’t pick your dog’s name, your maiden name or anything else completely obvious. Also, test the bank’s employees a few times to make sure they follow the rules. If they don’t even check when it is you, chances are they won’t when it isn’t. With nearly 10 million Americans victimized last year this is one instance in which you do not want to take chances.

Damm didn’t have her wallet stolen or see a thief digging through her trash. In fact, she is completely unsure about how her personal information got leaked out. All she can do is speculate. So basically she did nothing wrong but the thieves still found a way in, so to speak. Don’t get a false sense of security. That’s the easiest way to open the door. Find a credit protection service today.

City of Charlotte, North Carolina Contacts Former and Current Employees Regarding Lost Information

Two DVDs containing the personal information of over 5,000 employees, both past and present, were being sent from the city of Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia where a consulting firm, Towers Watson & Co., was supposed to receive them. However, these DVDs went missing in the mail, and it is unsure where they ended up.

The DVDs contained personally identifiable information of over 5,000 employees of the city, including Social Security numbers, and was NOT encrypted, which goes against Towers Watson’s company policies regarding the safety and protection of personal data.

This information, which may possibly be protected under both state and federal laws, leaves the city of Charlotte in the situation of contacting and notifying all those who may have been affected by this security data breach. The city has notified those who may have been affected, and has offered two years of identity theft protection services for free.


Jacksonville, Florida Cell Phone Company Improperly Disposes of Client Information and Data

One women in Jacksonville, Florida found a pile of file folders in her recycling bin. And within these folders, the personal information of clients of a former cell phone company, Ferrell Communication, in town. Why the files were dumped in her recycling bin is beyond her, however, she was aware of the security risk this involved.

The woman, Jessica Menendez, contacted AT&T regarding the files, but was not given any instruction or solid information as to what to do with it. She ended up contacting Jacksonville police to have the information taken from her home and properly disposed of. These folders contained not only names and addresses, but driver’s license information, Social Security numbers, and other personally identifiable information.

It is unknown if the information got into anybody else’s hands from the time it was dumped to the time it was found, but if you were a client of the previous business Ferrell Communication, it is highly suggested that you take the proper precautions in protecting your identity, such as enrolling in identity theft protection or credit monitoring services to ensure that your information isn’t used inappropriately.

Rochester, New York Hospital Mails Hospital Bills to Incorrect Patients

Strong Memorial Hospital of Rochester, New York is currently contacting some 1200 patients who received medical bills on or around April 19th to apologize for a mishap from their envelope-stuffing machine.

According to a spokesperson at Strong Memorial Hospital, a machine that folds and stuffs bills into window envelopes malfunctioned and accidently sent some bills with more than one patient’s information and billing requests. One patient may have received not only their own medical bills, but the bill of other patients of Strong Memorial Hospital.

This malfunction is causing others to receive the medical billing information, service descriptions and diagnostic medical information of other patients of the hospital, which makes a lot of Strong Memorial Hospital’s patients uneasy and concerned about the safety and use of their medical data, possibly causing their information to be used in medical identity theft.

The hospital is recommending those that think they may be affected to place a credit freeze on their accounts, and credit monitoring services are highly recommended to stay on top of any unusual activity.

Twitters, Tweets and Identity Thieves

It seems that identity thieves have been making the rounds of the social networking sites lately. One of the latest victims was Twitter, a site that lets you add one sentence updates as you go about your day. The scam reeks of a phishing attack and uses a similar method to lure in victims.

Twitter members get a message in their private account inbox that asks them to check out a specific website and then helpfully provides a link to said site. However, the site is really just a spoofed site that looks like the Twitter login page. The thief’s hope is that you will think you got logged out and reenter your user name and password. That way he or she gains access to those two pieces of information plus anything else you’ve posted to your account. Then he or she can log in as you and try to draw personal information from your real Twitter friends.

Unfortunately, it turns out that a lot of people fall for scams like these. This is because there is an inherent trust of online “friends.” While this personal touch is what social networking sites strive for, it can be dangerous when identity thieves exploit and break that trust.

Although it is not the ideal choice for many a social butterfly, to prevent this type of scam from hurting you, you have to be discerning and protect your online privacy. Don’t accept friend requests from any old person who offers. Instead, only choose to be online buddies with people you know in real life, or at least people who are acquaintances or friends of friends – basically those who you’re sure are who they say they are. You have to always be thinking of identity theft protection.

If you get an email that sounds friendly and casual, it doesn’t automatically mean it is from a friend. Identity thieves have been using emails with subjects like “check out this website” or “boy will her boyfriend be mad” or even “I love you” for years to try to trick readers into thinking they are legitimate. Check the screen name before even reading the message to make sure it is from someone you actually know. If not, delete it.

Another thing you can do to try to stop these Web 2.0 thieves is to change your password – a lot. There’s nothing wrong with doing this each and every week. Just make sure you remember you did it or could find yourself locked out of your account and wondering why. For a more secure password, go with one that contains both letters and numbers and is not completely obvious, like your house number or birth date. Identity thieves can guess those after about two minutes of research.

Lastly, if you think you already fell for the Twitter scam, you are not alone. Some organizations say as many as one in 20 people that get phishing messages are duped. Instead of stewing about it, contact the FTC and then change your password right away. Then change it again in a week or so. Consider using TrustedID to protect your identity, with 15 points of protection including anti-keylogging software and sophisticated database scanning that alerts you to changes in your credit, it could be the one thing that saves you from a financial or emotional disaster.